quiet, serene, and peaceful no more

The quiet, serene, peaceful campus that was Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, is quiet, serene, and peaceful no more. That beautiful tranquil setting was shaken to its core yesterday with another tragedy. Ten people were killed and seven injured in a shooting there, and according to Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin. the 26-year-old gunman, is included among the ten fatalities.

How many school shooting have there been this year? How many have there been in my lifetime? When is this going to end?  Today people are angry and people are sad, but in a few days, they will seem to forget all about this, until it happens again. That's been the pattern anyway. We never seem to really act. It's not happening like this in other countries. Why is it happening here, and why won't we make it stop?

Now some people will quote the Second Amendment to the US Constitution which says we have a "right to keep and bear arms."  It does not however give us a right to go to school campuses and randomly shoot anyone in our path. Oh and does "arms" refer to full-auto machine guns, modern rifles, grenades, rockets, and handguns? How could that possibly have been the intent, since those "arms" had not yet been invented?

In so many parts of our country now, it is perfectly legal for someone to openly carry a gun on the street or in public places like stores and restaurants. Is this necessary? Time was, if you saw a person enter a business with a gun, you could be pretty sure he was up to no good. How can we tell now, before it is too late? I recently saw an elderly man on a motorized scooter paying for his groceries in the supermarket. His hand was shaking as he counted out his money. On his lap was a handgun. I'm no expert, but with the amount of shaking he was doing, I doubt if he would be a very good aim. That gun could cause some real harm.

Ban guns? Well, I'm not saying that. The argument will come back that criminals will find ways to get them anyway. Do something. Yes, I AM saying that. We MUST do something and we must come together and come up with some answers soon. We can't afford even one more shooting.